Friday, October 28, 2016

Another month with your sweet face has passed and I still can't believe you are mine! Your sweet personality is coming out more and more. You coo and smile whenever you see the pups playing or your big brother acting crazy. There have even been a few laughs from you! They are the sweetest thing ever. I also love just how expressive your face is at such a young age. Like I mentioned in the previous letter, you have the cutest is your exaggerated frown. While I hate seeing you upset, it is an adorable look.

EV, you have finally been sleeping longer hours at night. This is amazing for both of us. You get great sleep and so do I. It can never be a bad thing to have a longer stretch of sleep. Thankfully, you settle down quickly without much assistance from us. I have found that you will sleep just about anywhere like your brother. This is very useful in our family as we seem to be on the go a lot.

The awake hours are also increasing. I love seeing your little personality come out. You have clear likes and dislikes which you never hesitate to express to us with a coo or a cry. Your patience is still amazing to me. When you wake up in the morning I can buy myself a solid 5 minutes just by turning on your bedroom light. It almost instantly makes you stop crying. It gives me enough time to get your brother up and going before I get you. Bear also joins me in the morning to get you. He likes to say hi to you, while you greet him with a smile.

We try to keep you busy during tummy time. I read books to you, play with toys, and just talk to you while you hang out or try to roll. You don't seem to be as happy about these times throughout the day, but you tolerate them for as long as you can. I think once I find the small boppy pillow you will be much happier about it. Until then you will have to get by with what we are doing. EV you have great head control for a baby your age.

OK onto your current stats:

*Weight: 11.2 lbs (birth weight: 6 lbs)

*Length: 23 inches (birth length: 19 in)

*Weight and length are done by us since your next appointment is not until the end of November.

Diaper size: You are still in size 1 disposables and newborn size cloth diapers. I don't think you will be in the newborn diaper cloth diapers much longer, but I am happy with with the fit right now.

Clothing size: you are in size 3 month clothing for everything. They fit you well, but the sleepers are looking like a you may grow out of them when you have your next growth spurt. Please slow down! You are growing too fast.

Feedings/eating: You are still exclusively breastfed for the time being anyway. I have tried to give you a bottle of formula every now and then with the free newborn stuff we got in the mail, but you refuse. On occasion you will take a bottle of pumped milk with little difficulty. I'm hoping you get a bit more used to a bottle so that I can go out without you on occasion.

sorry about getting sprayed in the face girlie

Likes: You love Duke more than Coco. He seems to stand more of your infant antics. The Eric Carle duck stroller toy is your favorite right now. You are very into your activity mat, but not the toys that hang from them so I switched them out. Watching Bear run around is one of your favorite things. It makes you coo and laugh just watching him. Lord, help me when you are able to join him.

Dislikes: You hate when your brother shrieks. The noise will wake you up from a deep sleep. You do not like being in your car seat unless you are moving. I have also found out that you are not a fan of being held when there is pressure on your belly. This sort of goes without saying, but you are growing tired of tummy time regardless of what I try to do to make it more enjoyable.

Funny moments: I'm already shaking my head at what I am about to share, but thinking back on it was pretty funny. Something I will never forget. This past month you took your first trip to the Zoo. When we got to the car I changed your diaper and fed you. In the middle of eating you decided to evacuate your bowels of everything you have ever eaten in your entire life all in one very dramatic 5 minute ordeal. It included lots of crying, panic, multiple diapers and an entire package of travel wipes. I'm very thankful that only you needed a wardrobe change and a new blanket. It is honestly the worst diaper explosion I have ever experienced in my entire time working with kids, so that's saying something. I swear it is funny thinking back on it but at the time I had no idea what to even do.

Doctors Appointments: The last doctors appointment went well. You are growing like a weed and even on the growth chart! Your heat rash seems to have cleared up and I hope it stays that way. As far as your goopy eye goes it had just about cleared up. The only thing hanging around that your eye lid still looks a bit swollen. I'm hoping that goes away soon so you don't need medicine to clear it up.

Looking Forward: I am looking forward to more developmental growth. Seeing you roll over with more consistency and pushing up more. I also can't wait to see you interacting more with your brother. He is eager to play with you, but neither of you are quite there yet.

Monday, October 24, 2016

This is a week of super easy meals. I feel like I say that all the time, but really this week is easy food wise. There are very few (3-4) ingredients for each meal and two of them are even freezer meals. You can't get much easier than that. Like normal, if you want to know more about something let me know.

Friday, October 21, 2016

It's Friday and while I didn't expect to do another one of these so soon there have been a few things I can't get enough of lately!

1. Cooler Weather! - We are currently expecting lots of rain but this past week the weather had been beautiful. I love cool and cold weather. I have even been able to spent nap time outside. If I could bottle up this weather or make it stay like that all year long I would!

2. A Large Cast Iron Skillet - I have no idea the brand of this cast iron skillet, but I can tell you that it came unseasoned and now it's seasoned enough to cook eggs on without an issue. We have had it for about at least six years now and I would give up just about every other cookware for this beauty.

3. Korean Restaurants - We live near some AMAZING Korean restaurants that I can't get enough of! There are two that we have been going to so much that they are starting to know us by name. I could eat a massive bowl of their pickled daikon sprinkled with chili flakes. It is pure heaven to me. Let's not even get into just how good the beef and leaf or bibimbop is. OK, now I know where we are going for dinner tonight.

4. Food Network Silicone Cooking Utensils - I started out by picking up the spatulas. My old ones were the silicone top with a wooden handle. Food would get stuck where the handle and the silicone met. It was insane to clean because it wouldn't come apart. I went through too many of them over the years. It is a single piece which makes it easier to clean since there is no where for food to get stuck in a seam. I found these and loved them so much I picked up the whole line. I have even bought them for several family members sets as well. I highly recommend these. There are more than just what you see in my picture. There are all that were clean at the time for me snap a pic of.

5. Little Blue Truck's Halloween By Alice Schertle - This series is a favorite in our house in general, but this one is easily Bear's favorite book. They bring back all the animals that were in the other stories and dress them up. He likes to tell me what the animal is behind the costumes.

6. Curious George Boo Fest Movie - We have this on Netflix, but if it ever leaves I will pick up the DVD. Bear loves it so much and I kind of do too. It's a cute Halloween movie for kids.

Monday, October 17, 2016

We don't have a lot going on, but I am looking to wean down the pantry and the deep freezer. So, meals this time reflect that. Like always, if you see something you would like to know more about I will happily share it.

Friday, October 14, 2016

It's the end of the week and I thought I would share a few of my favorite things lately.

1. Mossimo long sleep t-shirts (target) - I have more of these than I likely should, but they are soft and comfortable. I use them (or the short sleeve) shirts daily. You can't beat the cheap price when they are on sale.

2. The Children's Place- But only when they are having a sale. Notice a trend? Bear is a tall skinny kid. Finding pants for him has been particularly hard. For the longest time the Carters pants with the cloth waist bands worked well. However, the waist barely stays up on him now and when he's out of diapers they won't stay up at all. Thankfully in the last cousin's box we scored a pair of the children's place basic denim jeans. They fit Bear perfectly! They were on sale so I picked up his current size and a size up.

3. Le Creuset Enamel Cast Iron 5qt Braiser- I could give up just most of my cookware and replace it with this beauty. In fact, I use it whenever I can. It was well worth the money for any of my Le Creuset cookware, especially this one! Seriously, you need this in your kitchen!

4. Chalk Sticker with liquid chalk marker - I picked these up a long time ago, but I am really loving them since we are using the container more lately. I wipe them off and refill them without any issues. I really, really need to find more excuses to use these else where in the house!

5. GNC Total Lean Shake 25 (Chocolate Peanut Butter) - Ok, so I don't love any meal replacement shakes I have tried, but this one, in this flavor is the best one I have tried for the price. We are able to pick this up at the GNC at the PX for a decent price.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

My BIL (Brother in Law) introduced us to some of the seasoned finishing salt that he picked up on his travels with work. He let us try several of his which sparked us to want to buy our own. Needless to say we went a bit overboard so the box of these will be an early anniversary gift to ourselves.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Hubby got a new kitchen gadget last month. He picked up a Sous Vide Cooker that he has been dying to use for anything and everything he can. For those of you that aren't sure what this is all about, well this video explains it better than I can.

This is his set up. We had a cooler that the movers busted and hubby decided to re purpose it to work for the sous vide cooker.

Place the seasoned ribs in the food saver bags and seal. Put them in the water bath. Hook up the sous vide cooker, set the temperature and time, then let it do its thing.

Yes, this was placed in a shower in our bathroom downstairs after we deep cleaned it. I was afraid of Bear messing with it, or it over flowing or something like that! The cooler was old and broken after all! Putting it in the shower took it out of the main living area and calmed my concerns.

It was going to cook for 20+ hours for the ribs. Thankfully, our cooker has a Bluetooth feed that goes to our phones. This helps us know if anything goes wrong.

When it was finish cooking, hubby gently slid them out onto the tray. He baked them for a while to dry out the ribs a bit. Using a grill works better to dry it out, we just didn't have the time to set up the charcoal grill.

The baking created a nice crust to the outside.

They remained moist on the inside.

They were some of the best ribs I have ever had! We will be doing these again and again.

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